This is a sample letter that I will be writing tonight.
To the ROTC Cadre,
Thank you for the opportunity to work with you. Thank you for your continual support of myself and my family in the semester that I have known you.
I will be withdrawing from the ROTC program for personal reasons. After much thought I have concluded that if I continued in the program I would either fail to fulfill the requirements of the program or my obligations to my wife.
When I moved to State Name I did so because I believed it was the only way for both myself and my wife to achieve our Bachelors. Anywhere else that we might have gone one of us could have gotten our degree but not both of us.
The first semester my participation in ROTC caused my wife a lot of stress and this semester's schedule was preventing her from having the school time that she needs. I am fully committed to her finishing her degree and for her to do well she needs to be able to work on her degree without any pressure because my schedule.
So with regret I am withdrawing from ROTC this semester. Thank you again for the opportunity to be a part of your organization.
Sincerely,
Dammerung
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Quick update note:
Letter was updated and edited for wording. This is a working draft before I write the real letter to the school.
ROTC was demanding 6am-7:30am every morning(which was thrown in with a 20 min drive).
Also thursday evenings.
Also a class T and Thursday from about 2-3.
Also voluntold assignments randomly throughout the semester.
And all this is the easier sophmore semesters for ROTC. Later there would be a lot more.
This was in addition to my 16 hour course load and the two kids(no babysitter after 1300) and her 14 hours(4 hours spanish and 4 hours chemestry and two easy history classes.). So please no one think that Wulfa is some kind of frail flower.
Wulfa's thoughts to come... she had to feed the littlest and was interupted:
(Because he asked me to explain my thoughts)
Last week I had a epiphany.
I was not 100% behind Damm being in ROTC.
I can't be. For our entire married life I've wanted to go back to school. Now I'm finally on that path and I'm not willing to sacrifice my degree. And that is what it would take for Damm to participate in ROTC with the dedication and commitment it deserves.
And so we reviewed our reasons for coming to NM and what we had wanted to accomplish. #1 was Damm's degree. Barely behind in #2 was my degree. #3 ... well once he took the oath it was the National Guard and, so we thought, ROTC. And a glorious officer career upon graduation.
He can still have his officer career through OCS should he want it. If not he has several years service in the Guard but he could start a civilian career in engineering. And once I have completed my bachelor's degree my plan is to home school my kids and support Damm in whatever career he truly wants. And work on my Masters. Strictly on the side, you understand.
I probably should mention that Damm had not taken any oaths or signed any contracts with ROTC.
And once he told me that he didn't want me to sacrifice my schooling for him he upped his awesome-husband-love-him-forever quotient by a megatrillion. I could feel the burden we had been under slipping away. My kids went from stressed-out because parents were stressed to being in awesome moods.
So there you have it.
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